She retired from acting in 1933, but two decades later her reputation received an extra blow with Singin in the Rain, which featured Lina Lamont, the talentless flapper with a Noo Yoik twang who cant hack it in the sound era. School: Bay Ridge High School for Girls, Erasmus Hall High School. They lived in a dirty and rotting tenement in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. Bow always did know how to hustle. In 1931, one of Clara Bows best friends turned on her. By the time the reclusive Clara Bow passed, almost no one remembered her. For all that they were making stacks of money off of her, Bows studio executives and directors were incredibly demeaning of their star. Were always looking for your input! [86], The Plastic Age was Bow's final effort for Preferred Pictures and her biggest hit up to that time. She screens perfectly. Miss Bow and Michael Cudahy, a witness, appear above." c.1926 Robert S. Savage, son of Duluth, Minnesota steel millionaire, was a football hero at Yale; he was known as a man who never lost his head at a crucial moment. The contest earned Bow a trophy and a small film role, but no contract. She told Bow she would be better off dead than a Hollywood star, then made good on that disturbing promise. She catapulted to fame after winning Motion Picture magazine's 1921 "Fame and Fortune" contest. Born Clara Gordon BOW American actress Born on July 29, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA , United States Died on September 27, 1965 in Culver City, California, USA Born on July 29 33 Deceased on September 27 32 Family tree Report an error Bow Elijah 1792 - 1860 ? Occupation Actor Family Father - Robert Walter Bow (1874-1959) Mother - Sarah Frances Bow (ne Gordon) (1880-1923) Siblings - Clara had 2 older sisters who died in infancy. In 1925, Clara started a scandalous sensation. Bow was her parents' third child, but her two older sisters, born in 1903 and 1904, had died in infancy. In the blink of an eye, Bow left everything to travel west to Tinseltownand she soon found out it was a snake pit. In January 1929, Clara Bow received more than 45,000 letters in a single month. A damaging court trial charging her secretary Daisy DeVoe with financial mismanagement,[124][125] by Paramount-friendly officials: Los Angeles District Attorney Buron Fitts, Assistant District Attorney David Clark, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. Old Hollywood Stars. "Hollywood Star treatment Clara Bow", Thames Television, 1980, UK. [49], On July 22, 1923, Bow left New York, her father, and her boyfriend behind for Hollywood. The greatest box-office draw of her day she once received 45,000 fan letters in a single month, Clara Bow's on screen vitality and allure that beguiled thousands . Bow's IQ was measured "bright normal", while others claimed she was unable to reason, had poor judgment and displayed inappropriate or even bizarre behavior. Her personal appearance is almost enough to carry her to success without the aid of the brains she indubitably possesses. Instead, she lived by herself in a small bungalow until her devastating end. Flapper movies such as The Plastic Age or Dancing Mothers were perfect for Bow, who had a stunning ability to move naturally in front of the camera, bobbing and smirking with humour and sexiness. Description. View The Obituary For Clara Bow George of Bowling Green, Virginia. Though she was her mothers third daughter, Sarah had lost her two eldest children when they were babies, and doctors begged her not to get pregnant again or have another child for fear that this infant would perish too. [32] As Bow grew into womanhood, her stature as a "boy" in her old gang became "impossible". [119], With "talkies" The Wild Party, Dangerous Curves, and The Saturday Night Kid, all released in 1929, Bow kept her position as the top box-office draw and queen of Hollywood. Not so with Bow, who functioned on a personal contract with Schulberg. Clara Bow had a series of breakdowns beginning just before she left Hollywood, and her husband, Rex Bell, ended up committing her to a sanatorium, just as her father had done to her mother and her grandfather had done to her grandmother before her. As it turned out, the director actually wanted a young tomboy type for the part, and Bows disguise worked a little too well. Her imagery and electric, sexy performances spoke to the flapper persona of the times. Nearby Recently Sold Homes. Once Bow faced a threat of $150,000 in damages from a disgruntled wife, charged a former friend and secretary Daisy DeVoe with fraud, and defamation by the The Coast Reporter; Paramount had enough. [60] Moore essayed the baseball-playing tomboy and Bow, according to Moore, said "I don't like my part, I wanna play yours. Call Her Savage(released Nov/32)stars,among others,Clara Bow as Nasa Springer,Gilbert Roland as Moonglow,Thelma Todd as Sunny De Lane,Monroe Owsley as Lawrence Crosby,Estelle Taylor as Ruth Springer and Weldon Heyburn as Ronasa.This Clara's second to last film and is a pre code melodrama with lots of surprises, for those use to seeing post code . Clara passed away on month day 2013, at age 74 at death place, Michigan. Bow might have looked sweet, but you best not cross her. [16] "I'd go home and be a one girl circus, taking the parts of everyone I'd seen, living them before the glass. What a fitting final curtain call for a performer who got her start in a national competition. But there is, at long last, a happy ending for Clara Bowand it comes from a most unusual heroine. Clara later arranged a double date for herself and best friend Tui Lorraine with. Though it was DeVoe who was on trial, somehow Bow ended up with all the backlashespecially when Daisy revealed all of Claras worst secrets. Bow won an evening gown and a silver trophy, and the publisher committed to help her "gain a role in films", but nothing happened. Her mother, Sarah Gordon, who was mentally ill as well as an epileptic, was noted for her public and frequent affairs with local firemen. Reviews were nothing less than outstanding: The New York Times said that "(Bow)is vivacious and, as Betty Lou, saucy, which perhaps is one of the ingredients of It. [16] In 1919, Bow enrolled in Bay Ridge High School for Girls. Talkies were now the thing in Hollywood, and the former silent film star had to put her vocal chords on the line for the first time ever. [16], Preferred Pictures loaned Bow to producers "for sums ranging from $1500 to $2000 a week"[80] while paying Bow a salary of $200 to $750 a week. [51] But first she was lent to First National Pictures to co-star in the adaptation of Gertrude Atherton's 1923 best seller Black Oxen, shot in October, and to co-star with Colleen Moore in Painted People, shot in November. [16] By the time Clara was four and a half, her father was out of work,[18] and between 1905 and 1923, the family lived at 14 different addresses, but seldom outside Prospect Heights, with Clara's father often absent. You must see 'Down to the Sea in Ships'". Clara's mother Sarah was not keen to marry but felt the pressure from her family. "[110] The Film Daily wrote that "Clara Bow gets a real chance and carries it off with honors(and)she is really the whole show",[111] and Variety said "You can't get away from this Clara Bow girl. It was very hard at the time and I used to be worn out and cry myself to sleep from sheer fatigue after 18 hours a day on different sets, but now [Early 1928] I am glad of it. "[16], Bow's interest in sports and her physical abilities led her to plan for a career as an athletics instructor. Bow truly loved movies, but her adoration came from an incredibly dark place. [122] In October 1929 Bow described her nerves as "all shot", saying that she had reached "the breaking point", and Photoplay cited reports of "rows of bottles of sedatives" by her bed. Im a big freak, because Im myself!. On her mother's side: a French grandmother and Scottish grandfather. If there is an aspect of silent cinema you would like to see featured in Silent but deadly! It was a fateful decision. She was known for being a Movie Actress. [2], Film historian Leonard Maltin said in 1999; "You think of Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, all these great names, great actresses, Clara Bow was more popular in terms of box-office dollars, in terms of consistently bringing audiences into the theaters, she was right on top. But she is full of confidence, determination and ambition. Both her mother and grandmother were mentally ill and her father was disinterested in both marriage and children (he had left Clara's mother shortly before she went into labor). Bows father Robert was one unsavory dude. Bow stated she was 23 years old, i.e., born 1906, contradicting the censuses of 1910 and 1920.[13]. In February 1922, Clara Bow awoke to a horrifying sight: Her mother holding a butchers knife to her throat. Topics. Three children were born to his union - Diane, Tom, Randy - and they farmed, ranched, and milked cows on the family farm until moving to Rapid City, SD, in October 1960. Sarah was told by a doctor not to become pregnant again, because this time she might die as well. Im a big freak, because Im myself!, Beyond It, her film roles tended to reflect the industrys ambivalence. Goldbeck, Elisabeth. Clara Bow, the playgirl of Hollywood, Liberty, spring 1975, 1929 retro special, "Sam Carver, manager of 'first run' theater 'Newman' in Kansas City to industrial journal,". Clara Bow was unwanted and unloved by her parents. Adela Rogers St. Johns knew a great deal of actors during her long life. [103] In Victor Fleming's comedy-triangle Mantrap Bow, as Alverna the manicurist, cures lonely hearts Joe Easter (Ernest Torrence) of the great northern, as well as pill-popping New York divorce attorney runaway Ralph Prescott (Percy Marmont). Kevin Brownlows essential oral history of silent Hollywood, The Parades Gone By, doesnt even mention Bow, because none of his other interviewees gave her a namecheck (a fault rectified in his TV series Hollywood, in which Brooks ably discusses her career and her mistreatment at the hands of the studio system). Real nice, 1920s casting directors, real nice. Yet the new talkie format still took a huge toll on the actress, In truth, Bow never liked talkies, calling them stiff and limiting and complaining that you lose your cuteness. She also never got comfortable with them. In 1928, Bow appeared in four Paramount releases: Red Hair, Ladies of the Mob, The Fleet's In, and Three Week-Ends, all of which are lost. Thatll scar you for lifeand it did. The Legacy Of Clara Bow, America's First Sex Symbol. She was only 25 years old. Now Clara Bow is 114 years 6 months 28 days old. Doran. Bow remembered: "All this time I was 'running wild', I guess, in the sense of trying to have a good time maybe this was a good thing, because I suppose a lot of that excitement, that joy of life, got onto the screen. her notorious tell-all memoir in Photoplay. An eye, Bow left New York but her adoration came from an incredibly place... Featured in silent but deadly trophy and a small bungalow until her devastating end roles tended reflect... 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